Tuesday, December 6, 2016

History of PR: going all the way back

Public Relations is viewed as a relatively new discipline
in the world.This is wrong but
understandable.Public Relations is experiencing
a hey-day right now with governments, corporations and many other entities using
Public Relations for vast amounts of services.The truth is that Public Relations has been a developing field since the
ancient era.After Caesar, had defeated
the Gauls in modern day France who was it that handled the huge propaganda campaign
that celebrated his victories across Rome.When Alexander the Great conquered all the way to India he had people
that created propaganda for his success.While the work these ‘rhetoricians’ did for these great leaders isn’t the
exact same work we find ourselves doing today, it is still the same principles
at work.

In ancient Greece Plato refers to a certain ‘rhetorician’
by the name of Gorgias of Leontinium in Sicily practiced persuasive skills for
a living and used those skills in many ways.Many ancient historians in ancient Greece noted that public opinion was
one of the most important factors in society and politics.It determined matters both large and small.Considering Greece was partially democratic
with its oligarchic government form there many reasons to keep the public
happy.If someone was searching for a
public office he needs to be voted in, this requires promotion of the self and
ideals.Public relations were developing
based off of pure necessity within ancient Greece.

Consider the crusades during the High Medieval period.Pope Urban II has just called for all Christians
to march on the Holy Land and take back Jerusalem.This was a massive social event and required
the word to be spread out all across Europe.The tactics they used to spread awareness included having messengers
reach all the churches in Europe and have local priests recruit for the
crusade.This hits the targeted
audience, devout Christians, right at home and ensures they are made aware of
this call to action.Crusaders had their
own attire and their own symbols which further spread awareness for the
crusade.The Catholic Church in the
middle ages was a power house of information and education.Catholic monks wrote most of the text during
this time.

Fast forward roughly 700 years to the late 18th
century in England.An anti-slavery
movement was gaining momentum.People were
calling for the freedom of all slaves.An English Poet wrote, “We have no slaves at home – Then why
abroad? Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs Receive our air, that
moment they are free. They touch our country, and their shackles fall.That's noble, and bespeaks a nation proud (Rhodes, William Cowper: Selected Poems.
p.84).This poem made it onto
leaflets and posters all over England.This
movement was very similar to modern day movements.Written text was used in abundance,
spokespersons spoke out against slavery, slogans were chanted repeatedly and
awareness of this was spread over all the English colonies.In the end the goal was achieved, slavery was
abolished in England in 1833.

Fast forward a
little farther to the 20th century where the world wars shaped the way
we view public relations.Propaganda was
used en masse to keep war time morale
high and people to encourage people to support the effort and join the armed
forces.Posters were seen all over
Canada, recruiting officers attended events organized by the government to
promote the war effort.Disney even took
the opportunity to create a series of cartoons that demonized the enemy and
made heroes out of allied soldiers.These
tactics were used again in America during the Vietnam war as well.

It would be a crime to create a history, even a brief history, about public relations without talking about "the father of public relations," Edward Bernays. With the sudden spike in urbanization and population abilities to influence the public were necessary as Bernays referred to humanity as irrational due to the "herd instinct." watch the video below for more on the father of public relations.

Public Relations
takes many forms and these early forms starting developing as far back as
ancient Greece.As the population of the
world grew so to did the need for ways to communicate with the ever-growing
populace.